Stretched To Breaking Point
by Mrs Doctor Who 11
Summary: The Doctor thought he was the one keeping the Ponds apart. But what if it was him keeping them together? Life after the TARDIS just doeswn't measue up and the cracks are starting to show in Amy and Rory's relationship. ONESHOT. Rated T for mild language.


The blue box materialised amongst the swirling auburn leaves, the wind whistling through the trees as the orange sun sank on the horizon.

A man stepped out, pulling his tweed jacket tighter around him to keep out the cold, his brown hair fluttering in the wind.

At the sight of the street, his eyes widened and he turned in a slow circle, taking it in.

"Ohhh... brilliant!" he threw his arms around the box, seeming not to care how mad he looked. "I leave you alone for a second and you bring me here. You know me well, dear. You know i miss them. You know I miss her."

"Excuse me... Sir? Are you alright?" a woman was stood before him, clad in jogging gear and holding the lead of a panting chocolate labrador.

He straightened up immediately, flashing her an infectious grin. "Yes, I'm just... hugging my box." he said, as though it was an explanation, gesturing to the box behind him. When the woman simply stared, he continued. "I'm off to see the Pond's, don't s'pose you know them? Quite normal bloke, except for the" he gestured at his nose "who has the nasty habit of... dieing? Pretty girl, bright red hair, very fiery? No?" he looked at the woman exasperatedly; she had no idea what he was on about.

Bidding her farewell, he strode off, lifting a small, silvery object in the air, pressing a button, and the box made a sound like a car locking.

The Doctor passed a playpark and a duckpond (he was pleased to see that this one had ducks, a real duckpond) before finally rounding the corner onto the Pond's street.

As he approached their house, he heard a series of bangs and shouts coming from a little way off.

Worried and curious, he sprinted down the road, anxious to get to his best friends' house and see what the commotion was.

It became clear who was making the noise all too quickly.

Amy hung out of an upstairs window, he face as red as her hair as she shouted and raged, throwing handfuls of colourful garments out of the window.

Rory too looked furious, stood in the street trying to grab the clothes before they fell into the muddy puddles that dotted the pavement.

Now, either they were playing a sort of bizarre catching game and were very competitive about it, or they were having an impromptu car boot sale.

However, as he watched from his spot a few feet away on the curb, it became clear that what was going on was not a game.

"Will you stop being such a stroppy cow! I'd rather not have all my clothes covered in muck, thanks!" he brandished a dirtied blue shirt accusingly.

"Well maybe you should have thought of that before you slept with that pig from the clothes shop!" Amy screamed back.

"I didn't sleep with her! And she works in a laundrette actually!" Rory's argument was feeble.

"Oh yeah, did she offer to share her machine with you when you forgot your wallet? 'Cos your delicates definitely mixed if you now what I mean!" Amy called sarcastically as she threw a striped jumper out of the window.

"Oh, hilarious Amy! Well here's one for you - stop washing our dirty laundry in public!" he roared.

"This isn't a joke, none of this is a joke! I'm just stating the facts, so shut up and deal with it!"

"I never said it was a bloody joke!"

"Well good, because it's not a joke, it's our marriage! And it's a pile of shit!"

"It wouldn't be like that if you weren't so paranoid! I haven't done anything wrong, I don't deserve to be treated like a criminal in my own home just because I'm back ten minutes late from work!"

"It wasn't ten minutes it was an hour, prick!"

"Like time matters; in fact, speaking of time, I didn't accuse you of cheating when you spent weeks in a time-machine with a Timelord! I didn't even question what you got up to, and you know why? Because I trusted you!"

"You want trust? Here's your trust! You can keep it, just like you can keep your last name!" Amy pulled her wedding and engagement rings off and threw them into the street; Rory grabbed them, fury pulsing through him.

"What the hell does that mean?"

"It means, Rory, I WANT A DIVORCE!" the noise stopped suddenly as Amy stood in the window, red hair waving in the wind, like the spark that had set her life on fire and destroyed her marriage beyond repair.

"Wow." Rory threw his hands in the air, the clothes he had gathered fluttering down into the dirt.

He walked away from the house, bumping shoulders with the Doctor and, glancing up to apologise, stopped dead.

"You! It's... you!" he looked shocked as the Doctor smiled and nodded, awkwardly.

He had no idea what to say.

This man had once been one of his best friends and suddenly he couldn't think of what to talk about.

Rory's expression changed from surprise to anger so quickly the Doctor had to do a double-take.

"It's YOU! How can you show your face around here? How can you look me in the eye, when this is ALL YOUR FAULT?" Rory yelled, and for a moment the Doctor wondered if a future version of himself had arrived at the Ponds before he had and caused trouble.

However, Rory made sure to elaborate.

"If you hadn't crashed in her garden when she was little, if you hadn't come back later, if you hadn't whipped her away THE NIGHT BEFORE OUR WEDDING, then maybe I'd be good enough for her! If you hadn't interfered, maybe she wouldn't spend every waking moment comparing what I can give her to what YOU can!" he shoved the Doctor.

"Listen, Rory, I didn't mean to crash in her garden that night, but when I did, I made a promise, I had to come back, I couldn't let her down!" he stumbled backwards as Rory advanced.

"Oh you and your promises! Ooh, I have to keep promises, I'm the Doctor, I'm amazing! Well guess what Doctor, you promised you'd rescue our daughter and where is she? NOT HERE. You make out like you're so wonderful, but when it really matters, what happens then? You run back to your box and fly off somewhere else, leaving anyone you took with you behind! And life on Earth just doesn't suit them now they've had a taste of time-travel!"

"I don't mean to do it, I only leave them behind because it's safest for them!"

"Then why take them in the first place? Why make the same mistake again and again? Why did you have to take her in the first place? If it weren't for you, Melody would be normal and we'd be happy, me and Amy, normal!" the Doctor was horrified to see tears in Rory's eyes beginning to fall.

"Why did you ruin our lives? Answer me!" Rory shouted, and his fist smashed into the Doctor's face.

The Doctor fell to the floor, Rory attacking him.

He held his hands up to keep off the blows, could hear Rory shouting at him to fight back, but he refused.

People were coming out into the street now, he could hear someone babbling into the phone, calling the police.

Rory stepped back, letting the Doctor scramble to his feet, blood running from his nose and lip.

"Come on! Fight me! Hit me back, show them that you're not the hero you say you are!" there was a mad gleam in Rory's eyes that the Doctor had never seen before as he gestured to the crowd.

"I won't fight you Rory." the Doctor gasped.

"Coward!" Rory yelled, launching towards him and pummeling his face.

They could see people wondering what this man could have done that he deserved such a punishment, and several men began to come forward to try and pull Rory off.

"Rory? What the hell are you doing?" Amy's voice rang out and people turned to face her, including Rory.

"Oh here she is! The bitch herself!" Rory laughed almost manically as people covered their mouths in shock.

Amy ignored him completely, her eyes round as she saw the Doctor.

"Doctor!" she yelled, running forwards and throwing her arms around him.

"Oh sure, run to him! Just like you always have Amy, even though I'm the one who's been here for you whenever he drops you!" Rory shouted.

"Rory." Amy glanced at her husband as she helped the Doctor to stand. "You need to leave."

"Oh for Gods- fine! You know what? FINE! Just give me your keys so I can get in the house after HE" Rory pointed accusingly at the Doctor "has left." he held out his hand expectantly.

"What?" Amy looked at him incredulously. "What? Rory, we just had a huge fight. I threw all your clothes out the house and told you I wanted a divorce. In what way does that tell you that you can come home later?"

Rory looked confusedly at her. "Amy... we've fought before. We can get over this, why is it any different than-"

"BECAUSE I DON'T LOVE YOU ANYMORE!" she yelled, slapping a hand to her mouth as though to try and trap the words that had already escaped.

Rory stumbled back as though she had slapped him, then staggered away.

Amy and the Doctor watched him retreat silently, then, with a single glance, they began to walk back to the Pond's house.

Either they had nothing to say, or they were too afraid to say it.

Amy opened the door as they tried to ignore the rainbow of colours that littered the drive.

They both sat on the couch, trying to work up the courage to speak to each other.

Eventually, Amy just burst into tears.

The Doctor quickly pulled her towards him, holding her tightly as she sobbed.

She spilled her heart and soul to him, telling him about how, when she was home, nothing really did compare to life in the TARDIS.

How her and Rory's relationship had deteriorated.

How she'd gotten pregnant.

And lost the baby at five months.

How she hadn't let the doctor tell her whether or not she could have children anymore because she was terrified of the answer.

He spoke back, mostly agreeing with her and being sympathetic, but sometime's blurting out things he couldn't hold in anymore - how empty the TARDIS seemed with her gone, how on several occasions, when being chased by aliens, he'd gone to grab a hand that wasn't there or grin at the face of his past companion only to find he was alone.

After a while, Amy's tears had slowed but hadn't stopped and she excused herself from the room, saying she'd only be a minute.

A few minutes later, there was several thumps on the stairs.

Amy appeared in the living room doorway, wiping her streaming eyes and clutching the handle of a large blue suitcase.

The Doctor stands, "Amy, what's going on?"

"Come on, let's go. Now." she says, her eyes still flowing with tears.

"No, Amy, you can't just run away-"

"No, listen, we have to go now, before I do something stupid like try and think rationally about this. Because if I do, I'll think about how Rory's gonna look for me and how I'm leaving him again and how maybe I should give him another chance even though I don't love him, I love you and I have to come with you because if I don't I will have NOTHING but even if I do, I can't be there unless you feel the same. I have to come but I know it's going to kill me when I find out you don't feel the same and I just need you, it's always been you, even if you don't-"

In two quick strides the Doctor had reached her and pulled her face to his.

He kissed her, feeling her tears mixing with his own as they kissed until they broke apart.

"Are you sure? Are you absolutely sure?" he whispers, eyes closed and his forehead against hers.

"I've been sure since I was seven years old." she whispers back, in the exact same position as him.

"Fine." he responds.

She opens her eyes to find his sea-green ones staring back at her.

"You know," he says, still looking at her, softly "a little while ago, if you'd have told me all this, I'd still have made you stay. Not because I didn't feel the same but because I knew you wouldn't be safe with me. No one ever is. Heck, I'M not safe with me. But you know what? In my old age, I've gotten stupid and careless - and selfish. I need you, Amelia Pond. You are the companion I have been searching for all these years." he said quietly, a hint of defeat in his voice, but the rest was filled with happiness.

"Are you sure?" she smiles.

He grins back.

"I've been sure since you were seven years old." he chuckles and they kiss again.

He glances down at her suitcase, then gives a short laugh.

"What?" she asks.

"Nothing, just... TARDIS blue." he replies, pointing at it.

"I searched high and low for that. Had to order it in that exact shade from India." Amy states almost proudly.

"How did you remember the exact colour?" he asks.

"It's been in my dreams every night since I met you. It's not how could I remember it's how could I forget." she says.

He looks at her intensely then grabs her hand.

"Come along Pond!" he smiles.

She's missed that smile.

"Wait. I want to show you something." she walks upstairs with him in tow.

There are three doors up here - one leads to a bathroom (he can see a toilet through the open door) and another is open a crack, showing a double bed and Rory's clothes scattered on the floor.

At first the Doctor thinks she might be taking him to her room, and he starts to worry - last time he was in there, things didn't go too well.

However, she tugs him past this, to the door at the end of the hall.

She turns the handle and he follows her inside.

He has to gasp as he takes in the room.

The walls are TARDIS blue, as is the carpet.

A TARDIS blue toybox is in the corner, and he can see every toy Amy made of him and her and the TARDIS when she was growing up is piled in there, waiting for little hands to take them out and play with them.

Books on the shelf are all about space or aliens.

And on the wall is a mural - a thousand pictures of a thousand moments shared.

They are of he and Amy holding hands when he first met her, the apple with the face on it, Dalek's, the astronaut, he and Amy being tied up by Silurians, the TARDIS and so many more.

In all of them, Rory is nowhere to be seen.

He examines each picture, reliving each moment, then turns when he hears a noise from Amy.

She is almost bent over double, a hand covering her mouth, trying to sob silently.

"Amy." he crosses the room and pulls her to him.

"I haven't been in here since..." she doesn't finish her sentence, but then again, she doesn't need to.

After a while she looks at the mural. "Looking at that, it really is no wonder he left."

"I had no idea you were such a good painter." the Doctor remarks, looking at the amazing detail on each and every part.

"I'm not usually. But when I got back from the hospital after... you know... I just looked at the wall and started painting and it just sort of happened. I spent hours just painting it all out. It was only when I finished that I realised Rory wasn't in any of them. I think it's then I knew. That I didn't love him how he loved me." she wipes her face, and for once the tears have stopped.

"Come on." the Doctor takes her hand and they walk downstairs, out the door, down the street and into the TARDIS.

Amy closes her eyes and breathes in.

"It smells the same." she smiles.

"You're not the first to have said that!" he chuckles, leaning against the console as she runs up the steps to join him. "So, where to?"

"Why don't you choose? You never choose!" she says, slipping back into the TARDIS routine as easily as if she'd never been gone.

"Me? Oh I don't know? I'm a bit boring. I'd probably take us to a museum or a... library. It's happened before!" he warns.

"Oh come off it. There must be somewhere in time where something happened to make you want to relive that moment again and again? Why don't we go there?" she suggests, her eyes bright.

"Because we're already there." he murmurs, leaning forward to capture her lips in his own.

The Doctor hurled the child in the air, her thick, curly red hair fluttering in the breeze.

She giggled as he caught her, stuffing her fist into her mouth.

He smiled at his two year old daughter, amazed at just how much she looked like her mother.

His eyes though.

He was overjoyed she looked so like Amy, but glad there was a bit of him in there somewhere.

He smiled at the dress Destiny was wearing - every item in his daughter's wardrobe had been collected by Amy on their trips around the universe, but this was by far his favourite.

It was, of course, TARDIS blue, knitted with the fur of a sheep-like creature from Klom - it had little TARDIS's embroidered on it around the edges and a little white collar.

He swung his daughter upside down and she shrieked as he looked at her shoes.

They matched her dress, with little TARDIS buttons on the straps.

It never stopped amazing him just how small she was, how dinky her tiny feet were.

Grinning, he looked down at his daughter, who was laughing non-stop as she used her upside-down position to stand on her head.

He gently laid her on the grass before scooping her up again.

He pulled a funny face and she clapped before holding onto his face.

"Daddy." she smiled.

"Who's a clever girl?" the Doctor spoke at the same time as Amy, who had just exited the TARDIS behind him.

He turned and planted a kiss on his wife's lips.

"You took your time!" he joked as they set off across the deserted planet, picnic basket in hand.

"Yeah, well just remember I'm dressing for two!" she smiles as she slips an arm around his waist, rubbing her protruding bump with the other hand.

"In that case, take all the time you need. You've given me everything, the least I can give you is time." he kisses her again.

"Hey!" Destiny, who until this moment has been babbling away to herself, grabs her fathers face and pulls it away from her mothers.

"You notty!" she pokes him in the nose as Amy laughs.

"I think she disapproves!" Amy chuckles as the Doctor grabs Destiny's hand and pretends to eat it, making the child squeal with delight.

"Ohh one day, I'm going to eat that hand... and this foot!" the Doctor proclaims, swinging Destiny upside down and pretending to eat her foot now as she shrieks.

"Speaking of eating," Amy says, rubbing her belly "I'm starving!"

"Come on then! Do you want something to eat, sweetheart?" the Doctor asked Destiny as he rolled out the red and white checked rug they had bought.

Destiny shook her head, squeezing her mouth firmly closed.

"Oh come on, when is she going to get over this eating solid food thing? I thought she developed faster than normal babies, not slower!" Amy groaned.

"I told you, it's not the texture, it's the flavour she doesn't like." the Doctor replied, sitting Destiny between his legs.

"Oh, so you think you can get her to eat solid food? Then go ahead!" Amy said angrily, her hormones kicking in.

The Doctor was pulling food from their basket and setting it on the blanket, sandwiches and salad and apples and chocolate bars.

"Here, do you want some of Daddy's food?" he asked Destiny.

"No! Don't like it!" Destiny was grumpy, her bottom lip sticking out.

"Come on just try a bit!"

"No!"

"Well you know Destiny, this isn't normal food. It's very special. It's all the way from Earth. From a very special person's house." the Doctor explained "Do you want to know who's?"

The baby nodded profusely.

"Your mummy's. These fishfingers are from her house the night we met when she was seven." the Doctor smiled as Amy looked at him incredulously and Destiny stared up at him.

Quickly, the Doctor grabbed a fishfinger, dunked it into the tub of custard and popped it into Destiny's open mouth.

She hesitated, no doubt deciding whether to accept the food or throw a tantrum, and then chewed.

Her green eyes lit up and she quickly swallowed, opening her mouth like a baby bird.

The Doctor put more in and smiled smugly at Amy.

"See? Told you I could!" he said as Amy scowled at him.

"Are those fishfingers really from my house when I was seven?"

"No, but they are the same brand so, potato, potahto." he shrugged and Amy giggled.

"Daddy!" Destiny opened and closed her mouth like a little goldfish until the Doctor popped another fishfinger in; he then dipped one in custard and ate it himself.

Amy smiled at her husband and daughter, chomping away in unison.

Suddenly, she felt a strange bump in her stomach, quite a bit larger than the other kicks she'd felt in her pregnancy.

She rubbed her stomach, worried.

Next, a shooting pain throughout her body and she realised what was happening.

"Ow!" she gasped at the pain and felt her waters break.

She stood up wobbily as the Doctor looked at her worriedly.

"Amy? What's wrong?" he asked, whilst Destiny looked up at her, chewing a soggy fishfinger.

"We need to go to the hospital." Amy spoke through gritted teeth, trying not to shout and alarm her daughter.

"Oh my... Now? You're having the baby now?" he jumped to his feet, swinging Destiny up and throwing an arm around Amy's waist to help her walk to the TARDIS.

He helped her through the doors and into a chair, then ran to the console, dropping Destiny onto it and typing in co-ordinates for the best hospital he knew.

He took a minute to steady himself against the console.

Even though this wasn't his first child, it was still overwhelming.

Running through the universe, saving the earth, dancing with death - it was all second nature to the Doctor.

What really scared him was whether he could be a good father or not.

Amy had reassured his faith when she had gotten pregnant the first time.

She had told him that, just by giving her the baby she had been terrified she could never have, so long as he tried his best, he would be the greatest father he could be.

And if that was enough for her, it was enough for him.

* * *

**R&R Please!**


End file.
